Friday, August 30, 2013

This Is Apartheid

Rachel Musi is 53 years of age. She and her husband had lived in
Krugersdorp for 32 years. Throughout this period, he had worked tor the
Krugersdorp municipality for £ 7.10 a month. They had seven children
ranging from 19 to 2 years of age. One was doing the final year of the
Junior Certificate at the Krugersdorp "Bantu" High School and three were
in primary schools, also in Krugersdorp. She had several convictions
for brewing traditional African beer. Because of these convictions she
was arrested as an undesirable person in terms of the provisions of the
Native Urban Areas Act and brought before the Additional Native
Commissioner of Krugersdorp. After the arrest but before her trial her
husband collapsed suddenly and died. Thereafter, the Commissioner judged
her an undesirable person and ordered her deportation to Lichtenburg.
Bereaved and broken-hearted, and with the responsibility of maintaining
seven children weighing heavily on her shoulders, an aged woman was
exiled from her home and forcibly separated from her children to fend
for herself among strangers in a strange environment...

In June 1952, I and about 50 other friends were arrested in
Johannesburg while taking part in a defiance campaign and removed to
Marshall Square. As we were being jostled into the drill yard one of our
prisoners was pushed from behind by a young European constable so
violently that he fell down some steps and broke his ankle. I protested,
whereupon the young warrior kicked me on the leg in cowboy style. We
were indignant and started a demonstration. Senior police officers
entered the yard to investigate. We drew their attention to the injured
man and demanded medical attention. We were curtly told that we could
repeat the request the next day. And so it was that Samuel Makae spent a
frightful night in the cells reeling and groaning with pain,
maliciously denied medical assistance by those who had deliberately
crippled him and whose duty it is to preserve and uphold the law.

In 1941 an African lad appeared before the Native Commissioner in
Johannesburg charged with failing to give a good and satisfactory
account of himself in terms of the above Act. The previous year he had
passed the Junior Certificate with a few distinctions. He had planned to
study Matric in the Cape but, because of illness, on the advice of the
family doctor he decided to spend the year at home in Alexandra
Township. Called upon by the police to produce proof that he had
sufficient honest means of earning his livelihood, he explained that he
was still a student and was maintained by his parents. He was then
arrested and ordered to work at Leeuwkop Farm Colony for six months as
an idle and disorderly person. This order was subsequently set aside on
review by the Supreme Court but only after the young man had languished
in gaol for seven weeks, with serious repercussions to his poor health
.....

Pernicious Face of Apartheid

The breaking up of African homes and families and the forcible
separation of children from mothers, the harsh treatment meted out to
African prisoners, and the forcible detention of Africans in farm
colonies for spurious statutory offences are a few examples of the
actual workings of the hideous and pernicious doctrines of racial
inequality. To these can be added scores of thousands of foul misdeeds
committed against the people by the Government: the denial to the
non-European people of the elementary rights of free citizenship; the
expropriation of the people from their lands and homes to assuage the
insatiable appetites of European land barons and industrialists; the
flogging and calculated murder of African labourers by European farmers
in the countryside for being "cheeky to the baas"; the vicious manner in
which African workers are beaten up by the police and flung into gaols
when they down tools to win their demands; the fostering of contempt and
hatred for non-Europeans. the fanning of racial prejudice between
whites and non-whites, between the various non-white groups; the
splitting of Africans into small hostile tribal units; the instigation
of one group or tribe against another; the banning of active workers
from the people`s organizations, and their confinement into certain
areas.

All these misdemeanours are weapons resorted to by the mining and
farming cliques of this country to protect their interests and to
prevent the rise of an all-powerful organized mass struggle. To them,
the end justifies the means, and that end is the creation of a vast
market of cheap labour for the farms. That is why homes are broken up
and people are removed from cities to the countryside to ensure enough
labour for the farms. That is why non-European political opponents of
the Government are treated with such brutality. In such a set-up,
African youth with distinguished scholastic careers are not a credit to
the country, but a serious threat to the governing circles, for they may
not like to descend to the bowels of the earth and cough their lungs
out to enrich the mining magnates, nor will they elect to dig potatoes
on farms for wretched rations.

A big battle was now looming on Zimbabwean soil, not just between the
settler forces of Ian Smith but the combined forces of Smith and the
SADF [South African Defense Force]. We noticed after three to four weeks
of our presence in Zimbabwe that there was a lot of aerial
reconnaissance by the enemy. . . . We were sure that it was only a
matter of days before we would have to engage the enemy.

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.